Simon Rex

(On Cable TV, June 2022) After Tangerine and The Florida Project, writer-director Sean Baker has already acquired an enviable reputation as a filmmaker with an interest in off-beat character studies, and Red Rocket only reinforces that title. Once again heading to the American South (this time: rural Texas), Baker aims to spend a few weeks alongside a sex worker trying to find their footing. It begins as a former male pornstar returns to his native small town in the hopes of reuniting with his wife and finding a job after being mysteriously run out of Los Angeles. Our protagonist is, not to put it nicely, charismatic but terrible– talking his way back into his estranged wife’s house, but quickly plotting to turn a local 17-year-old girl into a ticket back to the porn industry. It may sound dreary, but it’s a partial measure of Baker’s skill in that the film isn’t too bad of a time even when spent with a monstrous character. There’s a bit of dark humour running through the entire film (for instance; the montage sequence showing how being a freshly-retired pornographic actor isn’t a ticket to gainful employment), and the plotting does have this elusive I-wonder-what-will-happen-next quality. The film isn’t afraid to go ironic (as with the repeated use of N-Sync’s “Bye Bye Bye”), aesthetic (as in showcasing the strange beauty of an industrial plant), empathetic (in making obvious the impact of the protagonist’s actions on the “supporting” character) and even surreal (in concluding on an imaginary sequence, much like The Florida Project). It’s not exactly a fun or likable film – Simon Rex is almost too good in depicting a charming con-man and the film ends right at a moment of crises with unpleasant consequences—but it’s a remarkable one. Perhaps a touch too cynical to be as effective as The Florida Project, but an impressive third entry in a filmography that is bound to become even more imposing.